Joyce Catherine Stevens

HAVERHILL - Joyce Catherine (Daley) Stevens passed away peacefully on January 3, 2025, surrounded by loved ones. She had just celebrated her most wonderful time of year, Christmas, with her five children and 10 grandchildren and many extended family and friends. Her devotion to the season, and to Hallmark holiday movies, was honored years ago when her daughter gifted her with a Christmas-themed Massachusetts vanity license plate that proudly adorned her Honda. Joyce enjoyed the year-long sport of holiday and bargain shopping with friends who shared a love of the adventure and the hunt. A voracious reader, she was known to read several books in a weekend, sometimes in a day. A lifelong lover of arts and crafts, her knitting skills in retirement were perfected and she spent a good part of this past year, fueled by tea, feverishly knitting scarfs and throws that decorated family and friends. A fearless and unmatched cook and baker, she made the best spaghetti sauce of any full-blooded Irish woman known (with a bit of French for good measure). From the 1960's to today, Joyce's home was filled with the sounds of everything from the Beatles and bossa nova, to Elvis and Enya, 70's country rock, and every Christmas song imaginable. It fostered her children's love of music. A quiet adventurer, she was always up for road trips to Florida, to celebrate holidays and special occasions with family across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont (especially Thanksgivings), to move a child to Nebraska, to drive overnight to New York City to meet her granddaughter for the first time, or to help relocate her college-bound granddaughters to New York City and Virginia. She was planning to visit her grandson Jack at university in Florida this winter. Joyce also enjoyed celebrations and quiet times spent at the family's home on Cape Cod – a place she loved for more than 50 years. "I love you" were three words that came easily for Joyce, a 35-year breast cancer survivor, whose twinkling blue eyes and beautiful, easy smile embraced the simplicity of life rooted deeply in love. She leaves that legacy-built on care, commitment, decency, dignity, grace, kindness and love-for her children and grandchildren, and family and friends, to take forward. Her grandchildren were the light of her life, and she spent the better part of each year, planning the sharing of love with them around birthdays, holidays and special occasions. Her grandchildren showered her with love, including in the form of free labor. Childhood friendships, long-lived friendships, work friendships, rekindled old friendships and new friendships were blessings that Joyce cherished. Coffee meetups, breakfasts, lunches, and easy visits were part of her daily agenda. The joy and experience of her friends' lives and their families were as important to her as her own. Joyce was born in Haverhill in September 1943 to the late George and Christina (Keating) Daley. She was educated in Haverhill schools and St. James Catholic schools, graduating from St. James High School. She was married to the love of her life, John, for 60 years until his passing in 2023 and was his committed caregiver in the end. Together, they leave their greatest legacy, their children and grandchildren. After raising their children, Joyce returned to the world of outside work, first part-time and then for 16 years with Pentucket Bank, from which she retired in 2006. Joyce leaves the heavy hearts of her children, John, Lynne (Glen Nixon), Christopher (Jenny), Susan Lancaster (Aaron), and Andrew (Jessica), and her beloved grandchildren Kerien Gil (Camilo), Lily Stevens; Ty, Jack, and Abby Lancaster; and Brook, Ben, Reese, Samantha, and Matthew Stevens. Her deepest love for them requited by them. In addition to her children and grandchildren, Joyce is survived by sisters Sheila (late Bernie) Field and Christina "Chris" Herman, and brother Jack and sister-in-law Laurie Daley. She is also survived by sisters-and brother-in-law, Barbara Larsen, Carolyn "Kay" Rozzi, and Charles and Mel Stevens. She is also survived by her many dear friends, more than two dozen nieces, nephews, and extended family and friends who were part of her network of love. Joyce was pre-deceased by beloved brothers G. Michael "Mike" and William "Billy" Daley, as well as sisters- and brothers-in-law Betty Stevens, Harriet and Tom Hannigan, Mansur "Steve" and Deleen Stevens, Tom and Nancy Stevens, Harry Larsen and Al Rozzi, all of whom she held dearly. Visitation will be held on Friday, January 10, in the Driscoll Funeral Home, 309 S. Main Street, Haverhill from 1:30 to 4:30 PM. Words of Remembrance will begin at 4:00 PM. Private family interment will take place in St. Patrick Cemetery, Haverhill. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you read a good book in her memory or donate to your local library, including hers, the Haverhill Public Library at www.haverhillpl.org/donate. For guestbook, visit www.driscollcares.com To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Joyce Catherine (Daley) Stevens, please visit our floral store.